I too agree it was great, so great that for the first time EVER I e-mailed him to tell him so. As for the Lewis/peterson comments. He's doing what he said he'd do, comment like a "sports fan" off record. He laid it out there, HE THINKS Ray Ray cheated, but doesn't THINK Peterson did, it's just his opinion, it's nice to see it unedited...

eeisenbraun

RE: Great Bill Simmons article on PED use in Pro Sports2/1/2013 8:49PM - in reply to CincyBalls23

"I believe we need to fix this disconnect between our private conversations and our public ones. Cheating in professional sports is an epidemic. Wondering about the reasons behind a dramatically improved performance, or a dramatically fast recovery time, shouldn't be considered off-limits for media members. We shouldn't feel like scumbags bringing this stuff up. It's part of sports."

Couldn't agree more.

Agreer

RE: Great Bill Simmons article on PED use in Pro Sports2/1/2013 9:00PM - in reply to WWRD

Lance Romance wrote:Great? The article ends with him saying he think Lewis cheated in his comeback this year but Adrian Peterson came back from his injury naturally.

How could you not think it was amazing?

Simmons and the mainstream media are finally saying what we've been saying for 10 years. The so-called journalists that don't ask the questions are doing everyone a disservice as are the player's unions that don't allow the testing.

-Rojo

PS. We have hired a lawyer to sue Simmons for stealing our ideas without attribution.

rojoco-founder

RE: Great Bill Simmons article on PED use in Pro Sports2/2/2013 12:32PM - in reply to rojo

" I call it my "Pee In The Cup" list. I never wrote about that list because ESPN Me overruled Sports Fan Me (smartly, in this case). Just know that it doesn't take much to get added to the list. Some of my favorite ways include

Skip the Olympics (which has much stricter drug testing) in your prime for any dubious reason and you're on the list.

Enjoy your best season in years in your late 30s, four or five years after your last "best season," and you're on the list.

If you're a skinny dude who miraculously managed to add 20 pounds of muscle to your scarecrow frame, you're on the list.

If you chopped down the recovery time of a debilitating injury to something that just didn't seem possible a year ago, you're on the list.

If you were really good and really ripped at a really young age, and now your body is breaking down much sooner than it should be breaking down, you're on the list.

If you're exhibiting a level of superhuman endurance that has little correlation to the endurance of any of your competitors, you're on the list."

"I believe that Ray Lewis cheated. I believe that to be true based on circumstantial evidence, his age, his overcompetitiveness, the history of that specific injury, and the fact that his "recovery" made my shit detector start vibrating like a chainsaw."

"NBA players get tested up to four times during the course of a season. The fourth time can happen at any point from October to June, but once it happens, that's it. So if your fourth test occurs after your 71st game, you're clear the rest of the way. It's a running joke within NBA circles, something of a get-out-of-jail-free card: Once you pee in that fourth cup, you're good to go. Put whatever you want into your body. Feel like smoking enough weed to make Harold and Kumar blush? Knock yourself out. Feel like replacing your blood with cleaner blood so you have more endurance for the playoffs? Knock yourself out. Feel like starting a testosterone cycle because you might have to play 25 grueling playoff games over the next 10 weeks? Knock yourself out. Remember how competitive these guys are. What would they do for an edge? How far would they go? And why are we giving them the choice?"

Here is a followup post by "justin91."

justin91 wrote:The one that gets me is microdosing. Take relatively small doses at night (every night if you need to). That pretty much makes it game over for any sort of testing.

And a third post from "kicking and screaming":

"kicking and screaming" rote:This is the same guy as the author I assume

Simmons and the mainstream media are finally saying what we've been saying for 10 years. The so-called journalists that don't ask the questions are doing everyone a disservice as are the player's unions that don't allow the testing.

Good for mainstream media but in that article Simmons is still writing as ESPN Simmons rather than Sports Fan Simmons unless he's an idiot (which he isn't). Saying you think Lewis cheated based on circumstantial evidence (the non-doping doping scandal with the Deer Antler Spray) while saying you believe Peterson came back naturally is ESPN Simmons talking. There's no way Simmons can write about sports for ESPN for 10 years and not know that all NFL/NBA/MLB players use PEDs but according to his podcasts and articles only some athletes use PEDs - the ones who fail his PED profiling test or whatever. As a sports fan I'd rather him leave PEDs out of the discussion unless he's going to do it honestly.

He's one of my favorite sports writers I but have to roll my eyes when listening to a good baseball playoff podcast when he'll say "I think suspect Player X cheated because he looked washed up but hit lots of HRs last year and I googled pics of him from 10 years ago and he looked skinnier and I think his head grew.....but if there's one guy I'm certain is clean it's Derek Jeter because he's a nice guy, ect...."

have to agree

RE: Great Bill Simmons article on PED use in Pro Sports2/4/2013 10:54AM - in reply to Lance Romance

Lance Romance wrote:Great? The article ends with him saying he think Lewis cheated in his comeback this year but Adrian Peterson came back from his injury naturally.

I have to agree. I read the entire article and thought it was a great expose, until the last paragraph where he thinks AP mega season after such a bad injury was suspicious. Really, Bill? You just undermined your entire article with one stupid paragraph at the end.

aoidfjaoija

RE: Great Bill Simmons article on PED use in Pro Sports2/4/2013 11:09AM - in reply to rojo

1, Obsession with the 'performance enhancing drugs' concept is not a good thing. You should also a different mindset, the knowledge that you/we/they don't need drugs to reach the top in sport. And that the so called science behing the use of these drugs is very suspect, for example oxygen uptake is not limited in they way people perceieve it to be. So why don't you spend more time educating yourself and others in this way?

2, Drug testing is a joke anyway. And when athletes do get caught, those who supplied the drugs often don't get caught or brought to justice.

late to the game

RE: Great Bill Simmons article on PED use in Pro Sports2/4/2013 11:31AM - in reply to CincyBalls23

Simmons is saying what the book Steroid Nation said in 2007. It talks about the prevalence of juicing in every major sport and chronicles the history of steroid use. A real eye-opener and confirms everything I suspected. Basically 90% of pro athletes uses an illegal PED in one form or another.